Hall set to launch CD-release party for 'Schwagtown' at The Harp
By Bart Mendoza

The lure of San Diego's pop culture to musicians may seem like a recent trend, but it has actually been a reality for decades. Some of the most recent notable performers include Jewel (Alaska), Jason Mraz (Virginia) and Grand Ole Party (San Francisco). Yet jazz and pop artists, such as Frankie Laine (Chicago), began arriving in the late '60s.

Perhaps the most important influx of new blood came during the early '80s, when transplanted performers such as the Unknowns (Georgia) and Mark DeCerbo (New York) were establishing themselves on the local club circuit. Singer- songwriter Peter Hall, a longtime mainstay of the local pub and coffeehouse circuit, arrived on that wave.

Hall will perform at The Harp in Ocean Beach on Sunday, Aug. 16. The show will be a CD-release event for Hall's latest album, "Schwagtown." "The title is my nickname for Ocean Beach," Hall said. "I was briefly in a band called the Schwags, and since OB was my adopted home for 20 years, it felt appropriate to bring it all together for a title".

Raised in Massachusetts, Hall originally attended college in Durham, N.H., arriving in San Diego in 1980. He lived in Ocean Beach for the first 20 years before settling down in Claremont. He said his reason for the move west was pragmatic.

“I had nothing to lose," Hall said. "I had dropped out of college and the California dream was calling me."

by Frederick Leonard

Personality goes a long way. Sometimes the charm of one’s soul shines through in a way that exceeds all technical issues, politics, and personal preferences. All I have to say about this 13- song collection, in terms of its techinical value; is that it’s homemade. Its clean, bare bones, and free of any slick sonic ointments. Not one studio trick And this, my dear friends, is exactly what makes Peter Hall's CD so charmingly warm and human.

While much of the world is stressing on the newest, slickest. biggest, baddest, bestest next thing ever, this sounds like he sat down one day with a beer, hit the record button, and started spilling his guts as a guy. Meet Peter Hall. He's right here in person, in 3D - a person embedded in and giving life to an otherwise lifeless piece of mass-produced digitally capable plastic. Tough trick, artistically speaking. He tells stories and spins a heartfelt logic in a unique baritone croon that is quite special indeed. it was the first-thing that struck me as soon as I popped in the disc.